How to Start a Daycare in Kansas: Licensing Steps, Costs and Staffing

Kansas child care licensing moved to the new Kansas Office of Early Childhood (KOEC) on July 1, 2026, under 2025 House Bill 2045; the function moved out of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), and existing licensing staff moved with it.

KOEC says all existing child care licensing policies remain in effect during the transition.

The governing rules are still K.A.R. 28-4, with one part for centers and preschools and another for licensed family child care homes, last broadly amended effective August 2, 2024.

Licensing surveys are conducted by KOEC or by local health departments under contract with the state.

The rulebook splits into centers and preschools on one track and licensed family child care homes on the other.

A child care center serves children from two weeks to 16 years at least three hours a day for 13 or more children — or for fewer if the operator chooses to meet center rules.

Preschools, including Montessori, nursery and church preschools, are a separate license type that does not serve meals.

A licensed family child care home serves up to 12 children under 16, with capacity tables that set infant limits.

HB 2045 directs that licensure not be required for an individual caring fewer than 35 hours a week for 4 or fewer children, no more than 2 of them unrelated infants, or for irregular friend-and-neighbor care in their own home — a legislative summary, so confirm the implementing rules with KOEC.

The same summary says Kansas may not require a family child care licensee to live in the child care home.

The sections our research read set out no separate group-home category between the licensed home and the center; ask KOEC which category fits a program planned in between.

Both tracks start before the application.

Center and preschool applicants must complete an orientation on the requirements for operating a preschool or child care center, provided by the licensing designee serving their county.

Family child care applicants complete a pre-application orientation from their county's licensing designee, then the state health and safety training within 30 days of applying, plus pediatric first aid and CPR.

Comprehensive fingerprint background checks cost $48 each as of January 1, 2026 — a fee KOEC resumed after federal funds that had covered it expired — for center directors, teaching staff, owners and substitutes; home checks also cover providers, substitutes, unsupervised volunteers and household residents 18 and older, while residents 10 to 17 are checked without a fee.

Surveys are conducted by KOEC or one of 17 contracted local health departments serving more than 30 counties: an initial survey, then unannounced annual surveys, plus complaint and compliance surveys.

Our research did not capture a processing timeline — ask KOEC what to expect.

Facilities licensed for fewer than 24 children need directors 18 or older with a high school diploma plus one of: an associate or higher in ECE or a related field, a CDA, an ECE technical certificate, 3 semester hours with 3 months' experience, or 6 months' direct-care experience.

At 24 or more, degree-and-experience combinations qualify, or 6 years of ECE experience — or 4 in a licensed facility.

Centers need a full-time director; above 60 an administrator is required and the director must have no conflicting duties, above 100 a year's administration experience plus an assistant director.

Directors train 16 clock-hours a year, including 6 in administration.

Lead teachers follow a diploma-plus-one-route pattern at 18 or older; assistant teachers must be at least 16 — HB 2045 bars directors from imposing educational requirements on them.

Center staff and volunteers complete orientation within 7 days; counted staff complete health-and-safety training before or within 30 days of hire, pediatric first aid and CPR within 30 days, and 16 annual hours.

Home licensees must be 18 and, under HB 2045, train 8 to 10 hours a year for licensure years beginning after July 1, 2025 — the 2024 regulation still says 16.

Infants set your staffing floor: Kansas centers staff them at 1:3 with a maximum unit of 9, or 1:4 with a unit of 8, and toddlers at 1:6 with a unit of 12.

The same rule sets ratios and unit sizes for two-year-olds through school-age children, and a counted staff member may step out for up to 5 minutes while another stays in the room.

Volunteers count in ratio only from age 16.

Homes run on capacity: one provider serves 8 children with three infants or 10 with none, and up to 12 when all the children are 5 to 10, while two providers reach a group of 12 including up to 5 infants.

HB 2045 ordered a ratio-rule update by October 1, 2025; whether these figures changed was not confirmed in our research, so confirm the current table with KOEC before you staff a room.

The cost figures on the record concern background checks.

KOEC resumed charging $48 per comprehensive fingerprint background check as of January 1, 2026, after the federal funds that had covered the fee expired; the check applies to center directors, teaching staff, owners, substitutes and similar roles, and home checks also cover household residents 18 and older, while residents 10 to 17 are checked without a fee.

Beyond that, our research could not confirm Kansas license application or annual fee amounts — the fee schedule our research attempted was not accessible — and a 2026 proposed amendment would eliminate licensing fees and cut annual training from 16 to 10 hours, though its adoption status was not confirmed as of October 2026.

Our research also did not capture Kansas startup costs such as build-out, equipment, insurance or payroll — ask KOEC for the current fee schedule and price the rest from your own site and staffing plan.

Kansas's operator-side supports are workforce and quality programs; our research did not confirm a state startup grant for new daycare operators — ask KOEC and other state agencies what is open.

Cape, the statewide early childhood workforce registry run by Kansas Child Care Training Opportunities (KCCTO) since January 13, 2025, hosts staff profiles and Individual Professional Development Plans, and a complete Cape profile is required for KCCTO scholarships.

The KCCTO Higher Education Scholarship pays 100 percent of eligible tuition and required fees for up to 6 credit hours per semester of ECE coursework at accredited Kansas institutions for staff of licensed programs (Head Start staff are ineligible); applicants must use other aid first, including the Kansas Promise Scholarship where applicable, and earn at least a C.

Links to Quality, Kansas's free quality recognition and improvement system run by Child Care Aware of Kansas, is open to all licensed providers and pairs participants with a regional community consultant toward continuous improvement and recognition.